This blog is a place where I can share my conservative views with the people of Saugerties, NY.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

I want a Lamborghini

Is this just another ordinary plea made on the altar of crass consumerism? Actually no, for this desire to be realized the person making it is prepared to do things that are shocking. So shocking that the difference between them and what was once considered normal represents a moral chasm deeper than the Grand Canyon. The recent undercover videos exposing the Planned Parenthood baby parts harvesting operation are an unfiltered and candid look not only at an organization that is one of the central pillars of the modern Democrat Party but also the Progressive ideology that animates it. These videos concern the abortion issue, but the Progressive movement has, on issue after issue shown itself to be morally, spiritually and intellectually bankrupt.

One of the more arresting features of the videos is the casual nature in which the subject matter is discussed. The individuals in the videos project an air of almost supreme indifference, sipping wine or eating salad while haggling over the price or the best method of crunching up live babies. A famous writer, Hannah Arendt, who at one time lived right across the river from us in Annandale, in describing another horror coined the phrase, “the banality of evil”. In this instance it is an apt description of a mindset seemingly devoid of conscience.

One of President Obama’s biggest healthcare supporters, Ezekiel Emanuel, brother to the president’s former chief of staff, has recently written that 75 years is an appropriate length of time for humans to live. All of the quality living can be done prior to that time he argues, the implication being that the physical and mental decline of those over 75 and the resources needed to sustain them isn’t proportionate to what they can add. Given the ease and facility with which the technicians of Planned Parenthood can crunch defenseless babies apart, why it’s just a mere hop, skip and a jump to what lies ahead for defenseless senior citizens who have made it past their expiration date.

If the coarsening and deadening of the human spirit exemplified in these videos doesn’t grab your attention then perhaps an all out assault on the freedom of conscience might. Today, the fundamental liberties that our constitution protects and that are the birthright of every American are under assault as they have never been before. It is truly a measure of how far the Progressive movement has hijacked the ideals of the Democrat Party. Not that long ago one of the proudest boasts that a liberal Democrat could make was the expression attributed to Voltaire to the effect, “while I do not agree with what you say I will defend to the death your right to say it.” The modern Progressive has now updated this noble thought to “I not only disagree with what you have to say but will put you to death for saying it.” It is not hyperbole to say this is both literally and figuratively true. It is no small irony that a political party that has made hay preaching tolerance to others has itself become the grand wizard of intolerance.

No other issue exemplifies this intolerance better than the response to the recent Supreme Court decision finding a constitutional right to gay marriage. There are many Americans who believe (this writer among them) that the dignity and rights of Americans who identify as being gay can be protected short of bastardizing the meaning of the word marriage. In fact, every American has a stake in seeing the institution of marriage sustained and protected. But no, five judges decided to subvert the democratic process and take it upon themselves to decide for a nation of some 320 million what is in their interest. Even more importantly, the governments chief lawyer admitted that the tax exempt status of churches is now at risk. In the wake of this decision, a multitude of voices on the left called for religious institutions to lose their tax exempt status. A recent article in the Washington Post detailed the plans of many gay rights organizations to bring lawsuits against church affiliated Boy Scout troops. Not content with getting a favorable decision in the Supreme Court, the left in this country will now force those who don’t agree with them to get their minds right. Right now, in many nordic countries, ministers can be arrested for hate speech for preaching certain parts of the gospel. Anyone who thinks this wont happen here has not been paying attention.

Progressives in this country are not merely content with exerting power and control over the lives of Americans, they also want to be able to control what they think. Call this whatever you will - fascism or totalitarianism, it is deeply un American. At bottom it is a will for power, the old story of might makes right. Not even the fertile imagination of Rod Serling could conceive of an America where people would indulge their vanity for a sports car by marketing in baby parts or better yet, controlling what people think, as is happening on college campuses across the land. America is descending into a Progressive Twilight Zone where our values have been turned upside down and words no longer have meaning. No one should think that this nation can endure by turning its back on our heritage and the heritage of western civilization. At a time when all the world’s economies are faltering it is important to recognize that ours is a crisis not of economics but one of the spirit.